


collapsing star with tunnel vision

by pillowcreek



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Angst, Death, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 02:26:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13157280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pillowcreek/pseuds/pillowcreek
Summary: Jacobi's one of the best assassins around. Or at least he was until someone started killing all his targets.kepcobi rival assassins au.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so AO3 deleted this the first time I tried to post it so if it comes back well then... that's awkward. 
> 
> Anyways, this was written as part of the 2017 Wolf 359 Big Bang. Hope you enjoy!

Nothing got Jacobi more excited than a new mission. 

Well, except for explosions. 

But with that one small exception, missions were his favourite thing. 

And now, after days of waiting around to be contacted, he had finally received his latest assignment: a foreign ambassador who would only be in town for a week. He would have to act fast before the target left the country. He doubted that his bosses would be interested in paying him to travel halfway across the world to complete his mission when he had failed it the first time around in his own country. Better to just do it right the first time. 

Jacobi shifted impatiently in the elevator, watching the floor numbers count up. The ambassador’s room was on the seventeenth floor of the hotel, room 1713. There would be two members of his security team outside of his room that Jacobi would have to deal with. His current plan was to draw one out and chloroform them before sneaking up on the other and doing the same. And then it was a simple matter of stealing one of their keycards, going into the room and shooting the ambassador dead. All while going completely undetected thanks to the silencer he had brought and Maxwell taking out the security feed for the entire hotel for the next hour. 

The ding of the elevator doors opening up to the seventeenth floor brought him out of his thoughts and he headed off in the direction of room 1713, ready for another routine mission. 

_ In and out, nice and easy,  _ he thought. 

However there was an immediately noticeable problem when he glanced around the corner at the ambassador’s room and saw the two guards lying unconscious in front of it. 

“Shit,” he muttered. 

Jacobi ran down the hallway to see the door to the room wide open. He went in slowly, pulling out his gun and turning the safety off. He couldn’t hear any noise coming from inside, but that didn’t mean anything when dealing with a potential assassin. 

Screw that, not potential. Definitely an assassin. 

The ambassador’s body was lying on the bed, his head on the pillow and hands folded across his chest. Apparently the assassin hadn’t been in any kind of a rush and had a bit of a sense of humour. 

Asshole. 

Jacobi switched the safety back on and shoved his gun back into his belt before taking off back down the hallway. Who knows how long the body had been there? How long the guards had been out? He certainly didn’t and he sure as hell did not want to be there when they woke up and called the cops. 

He took the stairs down three floors, practically jumping down each flight. He then took the elevator down from the fourteenth floor, trying to calm down. It wouldn’t do him any good to look upset and suspicious leaving the hotel and have someone give his description to the police. Better to just relax and make his way through the lobby in a calm and collected manner before catching a cab back to headquarters to let them know they were beaten to the target. 

It wasn’t unheard of for other assassins to target the same person as them. In fact, it was quite common. Most of the assassins at his organization had been beaten to a scene before. It had just never happened to  _ him.  _ And Jacobi did not like the feeling of someone showing him up. 

He got off the elevator into the lobby and began walking calmly towards the exit, trying to look as much like a guest leaving for an evening out as possible. He managed that up until the point where some total asshole walked into him. 

“Whoa, careful there.” The man caught him before he fell over. Jacobi flushed. The guy was hot: tall, broad shoulders, dark hair that was just graying slightly at the temples. Totally the type of person Jacobi would have hit on if he hadn’t, y’know, been running away from a dead body. 

“Sorry,” he said, pulling away from him quickly. 

“You alright?” he asked. “You look pretty upset. Something happen?” 

“No, of course not,” Jacobi said, making his face neutral.  _ Don’t appear suspicious. Don’t let this guy have any reason to give your description to the police.  _

“Well, would you like to grab a drink with me then?” 

Jacobi cursed out whoever the hell killed his target. If this were a normal mission, he would have no reason not to agree to having a drink with this incredibly handsome man. But because it had very quickly become an abnormal mission, he now needed to get out of the hotel as fast as possible and report back to headquarters. 

“I’m sorry, I’m actually in a bit of a rush.” 

“Of course. I’ll see you around then.” 

“Yeah, sure.” 

The lie weighed on Jacobi all the way back to headquarters as he wondered why he didn’t just say that he was checking out that afternoon and gave him his phone number. Handsome men like that only came along once in a lifetime. 


	2. Chapter 2

It was another routine mission in Jacobi land. 

The mission this time wasn’t quite as high-profile. She was a hacker who lived a couple cities over that had somehow managed to hack into their network. She hadn’t been able to reach anything that was actually important, but Headquarters had sent Jacobi in to take care of her before she could get any further: get rid of the wind before it became a tornado. 

She lived in an apartment in the middle of the city so Jacobi stashed his car in a parking garage a few blocks over and walked the rest of the way. It was in the lobby that he ran into a familiar face. 

“Careful,” the man said, his eyes dancing with amusement. “Do you ever watch where you’re going?” 

“Do you ever not appear out of nowhere?” Jacobi snapped back. “What, do you live here or something?” 

“Just visiting a friend,” he said. His voice was calm and smooth. Southern accent; very sexy. “I take it you’re in a rush again today and will be too busy to take up my offer of a drink?” 

“I’m actually here to visit a friend as well,” Jacobi lied. “But I’ll be free later tonight.” 

“Sounds perfect.” The man rested his hand on Jacobi’s waist and he tensed up, hoping that his fingers didn’t come too close to his gun. He seemed to be fine though, as the man leaned forward and whispered in his ear. “Make sure you don’t take too long.” 

And with that he was gone. 

Jacobi found the woman’s apartment on the second floor of the building and made quick work of picking the lock. He went in and immediately noticed the scent of blood. 

_ Shit, not again.  _

He went running for the bedroom first, as that had been where the body was last time. It was empty so he checked the bathroom. Apart from a small window looking out over the alley next to the apartment building, the room held. 

_ Who wants a window in your bathroom? _ Jacobi thought.  _ It’s just weird. _

“Where could it be?” he muttered, running back out to the main room. 

And that was when he saw the blood trickling out from under the door of the hallway closet. 

Jacobi opened the door slowly, being careful not to touch the body as it fell out. The woman had a bullet wound in her forehead and Jacobi cursed out the asshole who did this under his breath. 

Whoever shot the hacker had to have known that he’d be coming up after them, otherwise there would be no point in stuffing the victim in the closet. That was done just to aggravate him and make him storm around the apartment looking for her. Which meant that there was a good chance that they were still in the neighbourhood somewhere. 

_ If I find them,  _ they’re  _ going to be the one with the bullet hole in their head.  _

The sound of police sirens outside startled Jacobi and he ran to the window. Sure enough, there were police cars pulling up in front of the building. 

“Motherfucker didn’t even use a silencer!” 

Jacobi sprinted to the bathroom, fuming. When he found this asshole, they were going to pay for what they had done. First they take two of his targets, then they make him climb out a fucking bathroom window! 

He climbed into the bathtub and pried the window open. It wasn’t exactly a  _ large  _ window, but it would be big enough to fit his body through. And it wasn’t exactly as if he had a lot of other options. All the other windows opened out over the front side of the building. AKA the side with the cops. 

So it was out the bathroom window he went. 

The landing on the concrete below was far from gentle. He had been taught how to land safely from a high jump, but safely didn’t necessarily mean painlessly. Jacobi felt a slight twinge in his right ankle as he landed and swore under his breath. It was probably just a sprain, but it would knock him out of commission for at least a few weeks. He straightened up and limped out of the alley, spurred on by the faint sound of cops’ voices in the apartment above. 

And that was when he saw him. 

The incredibly handsome man. 

He was standing across the street, casually leaning against the front window of a bakery. And he was staring directly at Jacobi, a slight smirk on his face. 

And that’s when it hit him. 

_ Make sure you don’t take too long.  _

He knew. He knew because  _ it was him.  _

Jacobi found his legs moving of their own accord and then suddenly he was walking across the street, cars honking and swerving to miss him. The man’s smirk widened when Jacobi reached the other side.

“Mr Jacobi.” Jacobi faltered.  _ How does he know my name?  _ “How would you like to come work for a real organization?”


	3. Chapter 3

This was not a routine mission in Jacobi land. 

He was pacing around the tech lab as Maxwell helped him pull his gear together - although it was really just her doing all the work. 

“I can’t stand him,” Jacobi said. “I can’t. Maxwell, you’d better make sure that I get in there before him because otherwise I’m just going to… I’m going to… FUCK!” 

“Yes, that’s certainly what it sounds like you’re going to do,” Maxwell muttered, stuffing a lock picking kit into a duffle bag for him. 

Jacobi scowled. “Just make sure he doesn’t get to the target first. Do your hacking thing.” 

“I do know what I’m doing. This isn’t my first mission.” 

“Maxwell.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Will you just go?” 

Jacobi grabbed the duffel bag from her. “Thanks.” 

“Oh good, you finally remembered your manners.” 

* * *

There was no sign of the mystery man when Jacobi made it to the target’s apartment. He wasn’t sure if this was a good sign or a bad one. On one hand, it could mean that Maxwell’s hacking had paid off and Jacobi beat him to the target. On the other, it could mean that he was here hours ago and Jacobi was fucked again.

When he entered the target’s apartment, the first thing he noticed wasn’t the smell of blood or the dead body on the floor. It was the man climbing out the window. 

He gave Jacobi an infuriating grin. “Mr. Jacobi! You made it!” 

“What- How- How did you get up here?! Maxwell locked down the building!” 

“Mr. Jacobi. Do you really rely so heavily on technology that you’ve forgotten about the basics?” 

Jacobi just continued to stare at him and sputter. 

“I see. Well, my offer still stands if you change your mind.” 

“I won’t,” Jacobi said firmly. 

The man shrugged and hopped out the window onto the fire escape. Jacobi was tempted to throw his gun at him. Fucking asshole. 

* * *

The man’s offer was simple.

“You’re an assassin?” Jacobi asked, stunned even as he shoved the other man into the alleyway. 

“Yes. Obviously. I’m really surprised that you hadn’t figured it out yet,” he said. 

“How was I supposed to figure it out? We’ve met, what, twice? And one of those times I didn’t even know someone was dead yet!” 

“The same man shows up at both your sites? Isn’t that suspicious?” 

“No!” Jacobi said, clenching his fists. “It’s what some people call a coincidence!” 

The man laughed. It dripped poison, but some part of Jacobi was still drawn to it. “ _ Coincidence. _ Mr. Jacobi, you should know better by now that there’s no such thing as coincidence in our line of work.” 

Jacobi was very tempted to shoot him. Or punch him. Or kick him. Some form of violence. “So what? Have you just been following me or something?” 

“That is precisely what I’ve been doing.” 

Jacobi really wanted to be violent now. “Why the hell would you do that?!” 

“I told you,” the man said. “I would like you to join my organization. I was merely… scouting you.” 

“You were scouting me? Because what? I’m supposed to jump at the chance to join you?” 

“Yes, exactly.” 

Jacobi very badly wanted to hit something. The man seemed to pick up on this because he laughed and leaned back against the wall of the alley. 

“Look, it’s an obvious choice. My organization is clearly better than yours. We’ve got the better intel, the better operatives, and the better tech.” 

Now it was Jacobi’s turn to laugh. “There’s no way you have the better tech. You don’t have Dr. Alana Maxwell. And there’s no way I’m joining you unless you have her.” 

He hummed thoughtfully. “Maxwell? Your hacker?” 

“Our tech expert, yeah. She’s the best in the business, so there’s-” 

“She’s not.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“I admire your loyalty to your partner, but Dr. Alana Maxwell is far from the best in the business.” 

Jacobi went to his happy place to keep from beating this man’s brains out. Currently his happy place was a very vivid fantasy about blowing him up. It was working wonders to keep him on the calmer end of angry. 

“What? You really think you can do better than her? You want  _ me  _ but not her?” he said. 

“Do you see me offering her a job right now?” the man said. 

“Well go fuck yourself then,” Jacobi said. “Because I’m not going anywhere without her.” 

The man shrugged and walked off down the alley. “We’ll see.” 

Jacobi prided himself on not shooting him and only briefly glancing at his ass. 

* * *

Jacobi returned to Maxwell that night and threw his duffel bag against the wall. “I hate him! I hate him so much!”

She turned around in her chair. “Same guy?” 

“Yes. I can’t believe- I can’t FUCKING believe-” 

“Jacobi, calm down. Breathe.” 

Jacobi inhaled sharply before yelling, “FUCK!” 

Maxwell sighed. “Daniel-” 

“No! NO! Don’t Daniel me right now! I don’t need to be Danieled right now! What I  _ need  _ is to fucking murder him! He’s going to be my next target, let’s see how he likes that! 

“Do you even know his name?” 

“No! But-” 

“Or who he works for?” 

“No, but-” 

“Or who his next hit is?”

“Dammit Maxwell, stop being reasonable!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find me on tumblr @pillowcreeks


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